The sympathy motion recognising former parliamentarian and convicted terrorist, Abdul Kadir, which was passed in Guyana’s Parliament on April 26, continues to raise troubling questions over the government’s ill-advised action. Among the questions are: ‘What was the APNU+AFC thinking?’, and secondly, ‘Who advises this government?’
Kadir was convicted in a US court for plotting to commit a serious act of terrorism, and on December 15, 2010, he was sentenced by Judge Dora Irizarry to life imprisonment in a New York court. He died as inmate number 64656-053 in a US penitentiary in Pennsylvania on June 28, 2018.
Kadir was convicted of conspiracy to attack a public transportation system, namely the John F. Kennedy airport in New York; conspiracy to destroy a building by fire or explosive; conspiracy to attack aircraft and aircraft materials; conspiracy to destroy international airport facilities; and conspiracy to attack a mass transportation facility. Had such a nefarious plot succeeded, it would have caused serious damage to life and property for the thousands of people who pass through that facility each day.
If anything needed to be recorded in perpetuity in Guyana’s Parliament, it should have been a motion indicating Abdul Kadir, also known as Michael Seaforth, was a Member of Parliament of Guyana, who was engaged in plotting an attack on the JFK Airport in New York, for which he received a life sentence.
Instead, a sympathy motion following his June 28, 2018 death was passed, with astounding encomiums generously paid out. Valerie Adams-Yearwood moved a motion in Parliament informing the House that Kadir was “a great man, a stalwart, a bold and courageous man”. Region 10 parliamentarian Audwin Rutherford, who seconded the motion, also sang Kadir’s praises, saying Linden, Guyana, and the National Assembly are “lesser for [Kadir’s] passing”. Perhaps Adams-Yearwood and Rutherford are advisers to the APNU+AFC?
If Adams-Yearwood and Rutherford are among those advisers, how could they have missed what then US Attorney, Loretta Lynch, later US Attorney General between 2015-2017, said when Kadir received his life sentence: “This sentence imposed on Abdul Kadir sends a powerful and clear message …We will bring to justice those who plot to attack the United States of America.” How could the Guyana government have not recalled such a clear, powerful message of criminal and terrorist behaviour by its former parliamentarian?
Following the government’s action, the response from US embassy in Georgetown was predictably adverse, the National Assembly called to task for honouring “a man who conspired to kill innocent people from across the United States and around the world”. Many of us in the Caribbean diaspora in the GTA have family members who travel through this facility, including a large contingent of Guyanese nationals, both here, and in New York.
In addition, the US Embassy stated: “This resolution is an insensitive and thoughtless act, which demonstrates the National Assembly’s disregard for the gravity of Kadir’s actions.” It also added, significantly, that, “Members of Parliament have placed this resolution in direct contradiction to the efforts of security cooperation between our two countries.” It was a well-deserved reproach.
The response from the APNU+AFC was as remarkable as it was non-sequitur, the government stating, “The Government of Guyana asserts that it had no intention of conveying the impression that the motion was designed to honour a former MP convicted of terrorism in another jurisdiction. The motion recognises the member’s service as a parliamentarian.” It is impossible to not view this statement as a container tenuous with the irreconcilable and self-contradictory; it is nothing less than failed damage-control.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s action has done damage to Guyana’s credibility abroad, particularly in the wake of recent terrorism outrages in New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Also, as noted in the admonishment and strongly-worded condemnation from the US, repercussions in international relations from the government’s action are being felt abroad.